


Dark Night in Malton

by lsellers (Annariel)



Category: Urban Dead
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-03
Updated: 2011-11-03
Packaged: 2017-10-25 16:23:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/272324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/lsellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabby meets a mysterious stranger</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dark Night in Malton

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gabcd86.livejournal.com](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=gabcd86.livejournal.com).



> Written to cheer-up Gabby, though its a bit overdue. However he assures me that while his life is no longer blighted, it is still burdened with unnecessary trials and tribulations.
> 
> Not beta'd. Consider yourselves warned.

"The barricades will hold until morning. At least I think they will," commented Lee, my 2iC, as he wearily climbed the stairs of Ostrehan Towers. He was slim man with short brown hair. Two shotguns were strapped to his back and he had a pistol holstered at either hip. He was carrying his toolbox. Lee knew what he was about. The barricades would hold.

The rest of the squad were huddled on the top floor, wrapped in sleeping bags and blankets and hoping the night wouldn't be too cold. Groans from outside told us zombies were around so we couldn't risk light or fire. A supper of corned beef and cold baked beans hadn't improved anyone's morale.

There were six of us all told. Lee, Cerrus and I had been in the DHPD a long time. Any of us could have led the squad, but Lee and I had picked the short straws. Cerrus was a large man with a shock of red hair. He could move quickly and silently through the ruined buildings of Malton in spite of his size though and it was unusual for him to choose to camp with the rest of the squad. Rescuing us when the zombies found us was more his style. The other three were all newcomers, fresh out of training, though they'd plenty of experience living in Malton if not in an area quite as zombie infested as Dunell Hills. Wes Rendar was a medic from one of the American army bases. He still wore his regulation helmet as a kind of badge, tying him to an older and more normal life though it had also proved surprisingly zombie-proof. Dr G had been a surgeon before the apocalypse took over. He was the tallest in the squad, a gangly thin man but his expertise was often useful when Wes' more practical field knowledge failed us. Jits Dhaliwal was a Malton native, like I was, though he'd not grown up in my part of town and was half my age. He was a second generation British Asian with an accent more RP than Yorkshire, with a shock of black hair that had at tendency to tumble into his eyes. We called him the rookie but he was a good shot and calm in a fight.

"It's Halloween," remarked Cerrus out of the blue, his voice echoing in the gloom.

"So?" asked Wes.

Cerrus shrugged. "So nothing. I was just observing."

"It's traditional to tell ghost stories on Halloween, isn't it?" asked Jits.

I huddled deeper into my sleeping bag in the gathering gloom. "I hardly think this is the place."

"Squad leader should go first," said Lee, looking pointedly at me.

I snorted.

"Come on, you must have something you can tell us. Something weird that's happened while you've been in the DHPD." Jits urged.

"It's a zombie apocalypse. I get weird every day around here."

"Something weird for a zombie apocalypse," said Cerrus.

I sighed. This was one of the reasons I'd resisted the squad leader post for so long.

"I don't know. I guess. Do any of you guys remember Gabby?"

"I remember him," said Cerrus.

"Yeah, me too!" said Lee.

They'd both been around before Gabby wandered off to explore Malton. I looked at the rest of the squad.

"Vaguely," said Wes. "He's the one who turns up every so often and rants about communism and fascism right?"

"Then he plays a guitar solo on a beat up fender and vanishes mysteriously." It is possible Lee sniggered at that point.

"Guy with the guitar! I remember him. He's not bad," said Dr G and I smiled at him.

"Yeah, that's him. Well this story is his really. I was with Dixie squad when it happened and he was with Delta."

"The old black ops squad?" asked Wes.

"Well, more a sort of tit-for-tat assassination squad but you get the idea. He was pursuing Fox Moldering, one of our most wanted, out of the DMZ and he ended up in Ridleybank by mistake."

Lee chuckled and shook his head. Jits and Wes looked sceptical.

"How do you accidentally end up in Ridleybank?" Jits asked.

"I have no fucking idea. But Gabby was always accidentally ending up places. He'd start daydreaming, I think, and then lose track of where he was. At any rate he wound up in Ridleybank, only the place was deserted."

"Well, the RRF," pointed out Wes.

"No really deserted. No survivors, no zombies, no one at all. Completely silent. It freaked him out totally, especially when he realised it was Halloween."

"Seriously?" asked Cerrus.

"Seriously. Anyway he started checking inside buildings and down side streets and so forth and eventually he found a big bunch of zeds all flat on their backs and apparently out cold. He figured most of the RRF were there. It was inside a big warehouse in the centre of the suburb. It looked like someone had barricaded themselves in. The zeds had come to get them and then, well, he didn't know. Whatever had happened it just left a large pile of dead bodies in the middle of an echoing space. He was reassured a bit when a few stirred, and you know you're freaked out when you find zombies waking up reassuring. He checked the whole warehouse out and up on the roof he found some kind of zipwire to the next building

"That was when he realised someone was following him. It was a dark night so he couldn't see much, but there was this shape in the darkness. Gabby began freerunning across the rooftops but no matter what he did it was always behind him a little. He tried doubling back and hiding in ambush, but nothing worked. He headed out of Ridleybank, last thing he wanted was to get caught there.

"Eventually he decided he'd thrown his pursuer and he holed up in an abandoned Kilt Store in a Mitcham Mall."

"When you say he decided he'd thrown his pursuer you mean he gave up worrying about it, don't you?" said Cerrus.

I shrugged. "You know Gabby. He figured the worst they could do was kill him."

There was a ripple of laughter round the room. Some jokes never get old, even in Malton, perhaps especially in Malton.

"Did the guy catch up with him?" asked Dr G.

"Yeah he did. He woke up to find himself staring down the wrong end of a shotgun with Fox Moldering at the other."

Another chuckle ran around the room.

"So much for hunting Fox down," remarked Lee.

I waved a hand. "I'm not sure it wasn't a trap all along to be honest. Gabby had had a tip off. We now know that Fox had a mole in the DHPD, in this squad in fact. I've always wondered if she gave him the tip and sent him right into Ridleybank and Fox's arms. But even without her help, Fox was a pretty good tracker and Gabby was never that careful."

"What happened next?"

"Fox always liked to give a little speech before killing us. Sometimes they were quite funny but he didn't get a chance on this occasion. According to Gabby he was just working out what was going on when the man's head quietly detached from his shoulders and rolled onto the floor."

"Ewww!" remarked Dr G.

"Ewww indeed. I gather it was quite messy. Gabby saw this figure in the window, like the silhouette of a gargoyle, large and humanoid, but sort of crouched. Then it was gone."

"Some freaky vigilante?"

"That's what he thought, but he was also remembering all the knocked out zombies in Ridleybank and he was curious, so he headed back up onto the roof to see if he could follow the man."

"No way. It had tracked Fox, tracking Gabby right? How was he going to catch up with it?" asked Lee.

"Wasn't too hard as it turns out. There was only the one free-running lane out of the mall which lead to the Whale building and then you had to drop down into Vere Cinema, which was ruined. Gabby got onto the roof of the Cinema to see that his rescuer was down in the auditorium surrounded by the RRF and they didn't look friendly."

"The RRF who he'd magically knocked out earlier?"

"Same ones. Gabby said there was this cloud of smoke, as if he'd let off some kind of gas cannister, but it must have been a one-time effect or something because the zombies were still moving. All Gabby could see was this gargoyle-like shape and the zombies closing in."

"What did Gabby do?" Jits was leaning forward, obviously interested in the tale.

"The guy had left a wire hanging from the edge of the roof so Gabby was able to lower himself down that into the cinema and let off a few shots. His plan was to clear a path to the door and then the two of them to could get out onto the street. To hear Gabby tell it, he did pretty much every trick shot known getting to the man in the centre of the room; somersaults through the air; kicking zombies out of the way; shooting the one creeping up behind him at the last minute."

Lee chuckled and shook his head. "Always exaggerating."

I shrugged. "Gabby was pretty good in a fight. He liked to play the fool but there weren't many people I'd have rather had at my back. He saved me from being zombie chow more times than I like to think."

"What about the other guy?" asked Jits.

"He didn't have any guns. Gabby said he put up a good fight with various knives and throwing blades, but Gabby also realised he was working hard not to get bitten."

"Why?" Wes frowned.

"He wasn't infected. In fact he wasn't from Malton at all, but I'm getting ahead of myself."

"Shit, not good getting yourself surrounded by zombies if you're clean," observed Dr G.

I nodded. "Once he saw Gabby, the other man told him to bring the wire over to him, rather than fighting their way to the door. Gabby complained a bit about that while, no doubt, blasting zombies left, right and centre with both style and élan. But he brought the wire over, the man attached it to his belt, grabbed Gabby and then they were up and out."

"To get back on the roof?" asked Jits.

I nodded.

"So, did mystery man say thank you?" asked Cerrus.

I laughed. "I'm not sure if Gabby even noticed because as soon as he'd gotten close to the guy, he realised who it was and I don't think he managed a coherent sentence for the next half hour."

"Who was it."

I grinned. "I'll give you a clue, long cape, pointy ears, mask?"

The squad exchanged mystified glances.

"Elf Zorro?" hazarded Dr G.

I sighed. "No, stupid! Batman! It was Batman!"

"Batman's a myth! I should know I'm from Gotham," said Wes.

I snorted. "It was Batman."

"It was someone dressed up as Batman."

I frowned. "I gather he did say `I am not as awesome as Gabriel'."

"Pretty much conclusive proof I'd say," said Lee. "I mean Batman, Gabby which is more awesome?"

I shrugged. "Maybe so, but if it wasn't the Batman then how do you explain that. It shows up every Halloween!"

I pointed out of the window. Up above Malton a pale light shone. It reflected off the lowering clouds in the sky; A large yellow circle and framed in its centre was the distinctive silhouette of a Fender Guitar.


End file.
